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Mining Weekly reports that Minerals Council SA (MCSA) legal deputy head Mxolisi Ngubane says that, although the prevalence of illegal mining is not new, the brazenness and evolving nature at which operations are taking place is becoming increasingly concerning to the wider mining industry and especially to miners in hotspot or sensitive areas.
Illegal mining continues as an “unprecedented crisis” for the legitimate mining industry and especially mines in hotspot areas in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, laments Roger Baxter CEO of the MCSA (previously called the Chamber of Mines). Attacks on legitimate mining operations are being handled with military-like precision. “They [are] highly skilled, highly trained, highly armed. At times, they even use booby traps … aimed [at] their rival illegal miners, [as well as] at some of the [legitimate mining] employees, where they take over [operational] shafts,” Ngubane said. He went on to indicate: “As much as the focus of illegal mining has been on abandoned and derelict mines or shafts that are no longer in use, there are instances where the brazenness is to such an extent that there are attempts to take over [existing] operations.” Recent examples of the violence include an armed attack on a Harmony Gold operation about two months ago, as well as a four-hour-long assault at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Cooke shaft, where 150 armed men attacked the mine’s security using an assortment of heavy weapons. Ngubane said the illegal mining industry could not be tolerated because of a concerning and significant disregard for safety among themselves, while their haphazard use of explosives undermined the structural integrity of mine shafts, as well as the health and safety of miners working in those operations.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly
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